Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Bee Business is Booming

It appears that all is going well in Bee-ville. Yesterday when I got home the sun was shining, and the bees were foraging up a storm, so it seemed a good time to take a peek. Sure enough previous capped brood was empty, meaning baby bees were out.
Remember I told you that cells for the male drones are quite a bit larger than for the girl workers. You can see it in this picture. Look down to the middle of the bottom half of the picture. See those cells that look like they have a cap on top. That is a boy bee cell. I believe if you want to see the pictures larger, you can click on them. Are you laughing because this is way more information already then you ever felt the need to know?

Now here, if you look about half way across you can see a row of bees with their heads in cells. They could be packing pollen, storing honey, or cleaning a cell that emerged. Look down further and to the right. No, it isn't corn on the cob, but capped brood cells of girly bees. Bees have about ten different jobs they do in their brief lives and they are hard at it.

Here you see that eight top bars have comb. They are bigger every day when I get home and this hive has way more done than the Langstroth hive.

As they age, dragging that load of pollen becomes more of challenge. Foraging is the last job Missy Bee does and she does it till she dies. I'm watching her in the grass just below the hive encouraging her to make it. She did.

Look at this little Missy. What a load.

I guess you can't tell I'm completely smitten with this whole process.

Today, as I was leaving a opossum had the audacity to crawl up out of the creek and die right smack in the middle of the drive way. I've come along way in managing animals. I will bury my chickie girls when they pass on, but I really had no relationship with this dead critter and the chickens were already out and I was feeling mildly hysterical that it was some fearsome rabid beast that one my girls would peck and get some awful disease.

Oh My JOY

Drummer Boys who come and rid the drive of fearsome rabid beasts, so the only drama I'm faced with is online state testing that DOES NOT WORK and in fact is completely shut down before day's end.

Have mercy. Tomorrow, regardless of what the state does, I'm getting in the creek and having some real education with my kidlets- so there!